Eco Annie’s Earth week Solutions

INTRODUCTION

IMPACTS OF GLOBAL WARMING

Human activity linked to fossil fuel usage, livestock, agriculture and deforestation have led to a sharp increase in the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that are being released into the earth’s atmosphere, causing the global average temperature to increase and warming of the oceans. Both these factors have contributed to the melting of glaciers in Antarctica, and if this continues the result will be an increase in sea level rise and many coastal cities will find themselves underwater and their citizens becoming climate refugees. This is already happening in places such as the Solomon Islands in the Pacific ocean where some islands have seen entire villages washed away. A warming climate also contributes to more extreme weather patterns that we see around the world today. As well as being a factor in melting the glaciers in Antarctica, warming oceans also cause ocean acidification which upsets the marine life ecosystem – will they be able to adapt to these situations or will we see some species die out?

SOLUTIONS

I have been lucky enough to have just returned from an Expedition to Antarctica to learn about climate change and to collaborate on taking action and creating solutions. Earth week starts today and ends with Earth Day on 22nd April. Every day this week I am going to post some solutions towards mitigating climate change. We have taken too many resources from our planet and it is now time to give back. If not, we will be forever the generation who knew about the problem, had the opportunity to do something about it but chose to ignore it and leave it for someone else to deal with.

“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it” Robert Swan (2041.com)